BrandlandUSA™

ORRVILLE, Ohio – Peter is officially home again. In his last Christmas trip home during the Roaring Reagan year of 1986, Peter was dropped off in an old VW bug in a Norwegian sweater. When he got home to his nice mansion in the early morning, he went into the kitchen and made Folgers coffee [...]

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With GE’s pending sale of NBC Universal to Comcast, we look back at the pieces of NBC and RCA that still survive. GE purchased NBC’s parent company RCA in 1986; it actually reacquired it, as it was once the same company. GE quickly dismantled the company. RCA’s consumer television business, which had competed with GE, [...]

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There is one person we need to know more about; it is Richard Whorf (1906-1966), the sometime actor who was director of the Beverly Hillbillies. Whorf was also a dancer, a designer, a producer and a writer. Whorf has a whole world view that we rather appreciate; traditional with a warped view of the world. [...]

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Want to read what happens to the merged company Kodak and Duracell, better known as Kodacell? This Thanksgiving, go out and read Cory Doctorow’s Makers, a tale of the future where everything is so cheap to make that all the legacy companies have had to adapt. It’s free on his site; an easier to-read hardback [...]

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The idea behind a brand is to turn a commodity into a special thing. And what is more commodity than concrete; concrete is cement and sand, right? Such was the genius of Gene Winchester, who created Quikrete brand concrete mix in 1952 in Columbus, Ohio. Now headquartered in Atlanta, the brand is trusted by do-it-yourselfers [...]

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NORTH HOLLYWOOD – This week, we got a press release from the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn. It is proof that franchised chains like Holiday Inn can encourage diversity within their system, yet preserve their Holiday Inn-ness. Now, you should know that I am a big Holiday Inn fan, and have been since I was a [...]

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There are only a few legacy electronics companies that still operate under their own brand; great names like Sperry, Burroughs, Hallicrafters and such have been merged into other companies or disappeared. Thankfully, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is still around, though the company appears to be drifting. One great name that has survived is Texas Instruments (NYSE: [...]

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Saturday Night Live and British Airways’ new LCY-JFK flight one are two different business ideas illustrating an important idea, namely adaptive reuse.Traditionally, adaptive reuse is applied to historic preservation of buildings. It is a very specific idea; to properly understand it you need to go and read James Marston Fitch‘s seminal book, Historic Preservation. In [...]

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Boston papers are reporting the sad news. Brigham’s is closing its last store in Boston. The ice cream company has been an icon of Boston since 1924, and locals and tourists have seen it as a part of the Boston identity. It’s a great regional brand, and much beloved. The chain was purchased in June [...]

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Here’s a word relationship that won’t be on S.A.T. tests. As Schweppes is the top brand for tonic water, Canada Dry is the top brand for ginger ale. We thought about the legacy of Canada Dry when we found a small brochure about Canada Dry in our STUFF. The little menu guide shows how to [...]

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